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[Undead Unicorn]

If you invite condemnation then you will get it. If you know not supporting something will make people dislike you then don't bring it up? All posts are voluntary.

The lack of awareness of this post is amazing.

 

[RenditMan]

It's the opposite.

It's the juniors defending Evilore or celebrating " the departure of prominent gaffers "

Whereas the folks who account suicided in the past 3-4 hours are the frequent posters.

The long time virtue signalling sjws falling on their own sword. Amusing to watch.

I'm sorry I've read numerous accounts of the story from the accuser and it reads simply like a scorned ex from every angle

She'd drunk to the point of being sick, her words, he'd matched her drink for drink, there's a good chance neither of them remember properly wtf happened.

She can't have been that traumatised as they went on to have a full blown relationship. She's sounds more pissed at how the relationship ended rather than the clearly clumsy drunken attempt to initiate it.

Still it's funny to see Gaf brought down by faux outraged snowflake SJWs acting on extremely limited evidence of a situation, seeing as that has been what's happening for years.

Oh, and regards the Spanish night club ass grab, having been to a few bouncing, gyrating, grinding night clubs in Spain in my youth it's easy to see how that happened as well. Very easy to get carried away in those places.

Maybe I'll get banned maybe I won't

 

[TarNaru33]

Thanks, man. It's just heartbreaking to think GAF as I knew it might be gone. People who didn't like that GAF was too "liberal" have a million other places to go to for video games discussion, but what about me and others like me? Where do we go now? GAF was the only one of its kind. If it disappears we have pretty much no other community like it to turn to.

Yeah, I agree, there won't be many websites that we can substitute the loss of GAF. That is why we must not give up.

I'm holding out hope that GAF will find new moderators that will allow proper discourse without it devolving into 4chan. That said I understand why people are abandoning ship...this whole thing is nuts.

Only issue is that 4chan is a very low bar for standards. If GAF goes anywhere near that, even I would jump ship. I mean, there aren't a lot of liberal and progressive leaning websites that also deals with games. I use several other forums and all of them have a conservative slant to it, where honest discussion is impossible due to people being intellectually dishonest throughout conversation (even trolling hard) as it has no consequence from a modding standpoint.

 

[realalbedo]

fuck this guy. apologise and step down, sell neogaf and live in disgrace somewhere else

 

[MadraptorMan]

Where's Japan GAF at? I have no interest in Twitter at all.

I would like to know this too...JGAF should stick together.

 

[iamblades]

As for the accusations, I don't see any crime here, and I don't see the reason to abandon the forum because of the owner's personal life.

I'm not sure I like the blanket ban on politics. Moderation was certainly an issue, as someone who is well outside of the gaf political mainstream, but the solution was to relax the moderation, not to tighten it.

Ultimately I don't see how a discussion forum can remain apolitical for very long, and speaking from someone who was often the odd man out in political threads, it is much superior to be able to have a lopsided discussion than none at all.

Be careful not to kill what's left of this forum by trying to save it.

 

[Aizo]

Where's Japan GAF at? I have no interest in Twitter at all.

I’m not telling you, expert 2.0.

Spoiler

I stopped going to JapanGAF a bit ago, so I have no idea. I just talk to a few members I met in Japan through line. The communities I followed are on discord, though. The future is unclear right now for most members, I think.

 

[joecanada]

That I didn't know what happened with Amirox until this whole thing is a sign of something very wrong about the way things are (were?) handled on gaf.
How do you want people to feel they're part of a community if they're left in the dark for some huge, awful actions of one their prominent members. That HAS to change, whether it comes from a power trip or an inability to prioritize what's important.

I'm not too sure about this ... Maybe a website is different like a community like you said but speaking from a business standpoint I'd never discuss personal shit and definitely not someone else's legal issues with others . I mean if you hate what a brand represents sure you jump ship but to expect explanations is not always realistic especially where legal shit is involved noone is going to say anything.

 

[Ecotic]

Whatever else can be said about the situation, it's very clear that Evilore's ability to lead the website has been fatally compromised. There is no future scenario where we look back at this moment and say "I'm really glad Evilore stayed on." Relative to the alternatives, he is nothing but a liability.

If Evilore cares about the community he has built, he will resign immediately.

This is how I feel. Neogaf's concern here should not be whether Evilore is guilty or not guilty, it should be what's best for this community's interests. I hope the situation between Evilore and his accuser gets resolved justly, but that shroud should not be Neogaf's shroud.

 

[flintstryker]

Also for the people complaining about the termination of political discussions, come the fuck on mates there weren't really any discussions taking place in most of those topics, it was just a bunch of people patting each other on the back and agreeing with almost everything and as soon as some nuance or slight diversion is introduced the crowd freaks out and create all kind of strawman to kill that line of thinking. Those political discussions were mostly circle jerks in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Wolfe]

Personally I think going "back to just gaming" is almost like admitting we'd all rather ignore the real life situations we just saw unfold this weekend and in general, and just pretend it all never happens.

Which is kind of hard for me to do, personally.

A lot of your post rings true for me but this part in particular hits a bit hard. After reading a lot of the sticky thread I still felt the desire to seek out a particular game thread to make a post as I've been enjoying it recently. I feel that I wanted to take my mind off the heavy stuff and kind of "get back to the way things were", except that while this is ongoing that's going to be hard to do regardless.

I enjoy the hell out of this site and have loved the way it seemed to foster a positive environment so I don't know if I'm willing to give up on this place and the communities here, but I won't deny it'll be in the back of my mind anytime I'm here until this situation is resolved.

Edit: I won't deny that when it came to the internet today I felt a bit lost, checked out some news through google lol, man I've been coming here a long time. Even for now it'll be weird not having OT side.

 

[takriel]

Honestly, I never felt that the moderation here was too strict. On the contrary, I appreciate the banning of clearly racist or sexist users. In this day and age, it's more important than ever to take a stand against the forces that threaten humanity.

 

[Lace]

The way this is all being handled is inexcusably bad, it's just a master class in bad executive decisions. There isn't much community left here, but removing the Off Topic forum because the owner of the website allegedly did something disgusting several years ago -- and was identifies -- is punishing the community for disgusting decisions that the owner of the website made.

Evilore, the Off Topic forum did not make you make the wrong decision or do the wrong thing 2 years ago or 5 years ago. The Off Topic forum did not make Amir0x download child pornography. Yes, the Off Topic forum exposes risk for your business (these three issues are examples of that risk), but the reason your business is a business is largely because the site has both a gaming discussion area (which I think is the initial draw for most members) and then an off topic area (which most members also chat in). I think most people here became members to chat about videogames, but then naturally, you chat about other things you're interested in -- sports, movies, music, or the really specific topics like the Black Culture threads, developer/programming threads, or the communities like WrassleGaf or NFLGaf. Punishing those communities because you or your former staff are exposing your business to risk with poor choices is not the right way to handle this.

There have been a number of high profile sexual assaults in the news lately, and while most folks are talking about Harvey Weinstein, Liberty Mutual -- the investment firm -- has also recently fired two employees for sexual misconduct at the workplace. It wouldn't be right for Liberty Mutual to say, "We're not having the company Christmas Party, because Christmas parties is what got us into this mess in the first place," or "We're not going to participate in social out reach because social out reach has made us look like hypocrites with these sexual assaults." No, because it's not The Christmas Party or the Social outreach program that's causing the problem: It's bad, hurtful, or illegal decisions made by you or by some former staff members.

You've always had a reputation for making brash decisions, and most of these have not faired well for you. Poorly thought out statements about Amir0x that bent the truth, came too late, and just weren't handled correctly; decisions to ban certain topics from being discussed; decisions to ban certain members or former staff, and scores of others. This, though, is clearly the worst decision and it shows in inability to accept fault. This decisions seems to simply be another projection: "I've made bad decisions in my life and business, and so the business must be punished." That doesn't make any sense, it's selfish and delusional.

You have an opportunity to make the right decision. Obviously you feel like this site is your baby and "it's your's," but this business exists in spite of you, not because of you. It can be hard for a CEO or business owner to give up something that they think is theirs, many CEOs resist this and are befuddled when their board ousts them for a business that they themselves launched. The right thing for you to do would have been to announce that you're taking an indefinite leave of absence from NeoGaf. Revenue from the site would be put into an escrow account to cover expenses and hire staff who would manage it in your absence. A board of staff (moderators, admins) would be formed to hire staff who would manage the site and support the community. Those would be base level decisions which would ensure, at least, some integrity with the site which would keep at least some members around. The site would persist and could possibly bounce back, ultimately you wouldn't be punishing your customers or your business for your own bad decision. Instead, you made the wrong decision with how this was handled and then continually made the wrong decision with how you're going to move forward with this, instead of holding yourself accountable, you're punishing the community that has made your business successful.

It shows an utter lack of self-awareness which then also undermines any integrity that you're trying to preserve against allegations like the ones you're facing.

I echo this, time for Evilore to step down and distance himself from NeoGaf.

 

[Palette Swap]

The long time virtue signalling sjws falling on their own sword. Amusing to watch.

I'm sorry I've read numerous accounts of the story from the accuser and it reads simply like a scorned ex from every angle

She'd drunk to the point of being sick, her words, he'd matched her drink for drink, there's a good chance neither of them remember properly wtf happened.

She can't have been that traumatised as they went on to have a full blown relationship. She's sounds more pissed at how the relationship ended rather than the clearly clumsy drunken attempt to initiate it.

Still it's funny to see Gaf brought down by faux outraged snowflake SJWs acting on extremely limited evidence of a situation, seeing as that has been what's happening for years.

Oh, and regards the Spanish night club ass grab, having been to a few bouncing, gyrating, grinding night clubs in Spain in my youth it's easy to see how that happened as well. Very easy to get carried away in those places.

Maybe I'll get banned maybe I won't

This is the kind of garbage people you’re now cultivating.

 

[Amibguous Cad]

lol, it's his business. I mean, I guess he could sell it to someone, but he's gonna have a tough time finding buyers after this.

Yes, I'm saying that he should sell the site. (Undoubtedly the current situation will lower its price, but the exodus this has launched is also going to hurt the income he can get from the site going forward).

In the interim, he should resign as head administrator and turn authority over to the moderators that are still here.

 

[Undead Unicorn]

A forum fully ran by self loathing "progressive" neo liberal shills. Sounds like a real winner.

A million threads complaining about how all of women in Dead or Alive Extreme Volleyball have big exposed breasts. A million other ones about how poor whites, who voted for Hillary Clinton overall by large margins, deserve to have their healthcare taken away because they didn't like her enough and dared pose skepticism to her and her Wallstreet and war record.

 

[KonradLaw]

lol, it's his business. I mean, I guess he could sell it to someone, but he's gonna have a tough time finding buyers after this.

Yeah, at most he could do a hands-off aproach and let other people run day to day operations, but there's no way he will just give up his source of income, especially as big one as GAF is, that would be just plain stupid of him. Especially since it would do absolutely nothing to improve his situation,

 

[GunslingerVit]

Since the big cleaning of the forum takes place, please clean me out as well.

 

[Machina]

I have to say, banning OT/political discussion in light of this and the current climate following the Weinstein breakout comes across as very shady. It's almost like Tylor is desperate not to get caught up in that mire when clearly he already is.

I will be waiting on ResetEra to permit me entry, then im outta here. Getting banned for posting a fake Trump tweet very recently certainly isn't helping GAF's cause in that regard. Like really?

 

[Aizo]

Honestly, I never felt that the moderation here was too strict. On the contrary, I appreciate the banning of clearly racist or sexist users. In this day and age, it's more important than ever to take a stand against the forces that threaten humanity.

Same. I was never even warned. All the hateful members I didn’t like ended up getting banned. Worked for me.

 

[DaytimeWhiskey]

Honestly, I never felt that the moderation here was too strict. On the contrary, I appreciate the banning of clearly racist or sexist users. In this day and age, it's more important than ever to take a stand against the forces that threaten humanity.

This post is either genius or extremely dense, I can't for the life of me tell

 

[Nekketsu Kõha]

Also for the people complaining about the termination of political discussions, come the fuck on mates there weren't really any discussions taking place in most of those topics, it was just a bunch of people patting each other on the back and agreeing with almost everything and as soon as some nuance or slight diversion is introduced the crowd freaks out and create all kind of strawman to kill that line of thinking. Those political discussions were mostly circle jerks in the grand scheme of things.

.

Toxic in this case is the perfect word for all things political in OT.

 

[ckaneo]

I'm sure this has been addressed, but why is Evilore saying the accusations are untrue when in the waypoint article he acknowledges them and adds more context. Doesnt that make them true?

I'm not saying he deserved punishment or anything, but the statement just reads as lies.

 

[RenditMan]

This is the kind of garbage people you’re now cultivating.

I'm just an innocent until proven guilty guy. Sorry if that's too right wing for you.

 

[hyp3rlink]

The Vice picture I think paints a pretty realistic picture.

Girl says okay it was fucked up but I'll give malka a second chance. That short relationship ends and girl sees malka pursuing new girl in a rapey way. Girl says fuck you dude and she blocks him on social media.

What was fucked up? That malka left the once she said she was not interested? They were not strangers... they were together drinking alone and she definitely didn't think of him as a 'brother' otherwise she wouldn't have had sex with him on a later date.

As I said earlier, when malka grabbed some strangers ass was more of a morally questionable act than this.

she is just looking to emotionally cash-in during this #metoo phase!

 

[Subpar Spatula]

It's a common excuse for drunks and drug addicts to blame their bad behavior and poor reputation on everyone else. The TOXIC racist misogynist users were banned at the drop of the hat, and the mods would drop the hat, because they dared say they voted for Sanders not Clinton, to politely disagreeing big breasts in an M rated video game meant automatic sexism, to dozens of other things.

Maybe one of the reasons Gaf developed a toxic rep all across the web was because you genuinely made out anyone had a strong disagreement about sex or cultural appropriation, or whatever it was that month that was trendy was tarred and feathered, and treated like Richard Spencer?

Maybe...the reason why even hates you is because you are the baddies?

Let's dissect this oddly designed response:

You say they were banned for voting for Sanders and not Clinton? Proof? I saw a bunch of people banned because they kept gloating they voted for Sanders and kept pushing the envelope. But hey, you're more right than I will ever be.

You were never banned for liking big breasts in video games. Context matters and I'm 100% right to assume those who were banned did the following:

"It's just boobs, calm your titties." - or some other form of that
"Don't get offended."
"I like tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiits!"

Here's a question: what argument do you think would get a ban for agreeing big boobs were fine? I'm sure your answer would illuminate a bit more on your though processes.

 

[LegendofJoe]

Great post, I echo the sentiments. The proposed solution here is basically, "We're upon rocky seas and I'm hearing a lot of dissent, so what we're gonna do is cut the boat in half. My expert leadership should definitely get MY half through."

Don't really see a way forward for GAF with this kind of self-important, head-in-the-sand philosophy at the helm.

I desperately hope a community pops up that can recapture GAF's activity and its best aspects, but given the overarching tenor of videogame fandom on the internet at this point, I'm not particularly optimistic.

It can happen, but it will take a long time for a new community to build itself to a similar level. The best hope is for the leadership to get its head out of its ass and work hard to make amends, repair bridges, show humility, and do whatever it takes to hold this community together. I'm not sure that's possible, but I'm going to give him a chance before I decide to bail.

 

[ec0ec0]

Just you. Shit like this is a reason why millions of women don't come forward about sexual assault incidents they've experienced. They feel guilty and ashamed of feeling victimized and wanting to come out because their experiences and treatment doesn't reach the levels others have had to deal with. That's a huge reason casual sexism and harassment exist everywhere. And posts like yours only reinforce that by feeding into that idea that some harassment and assault doesn't matter and detracts from "real" assault.

It might be just one incident but Tyler's recounting and justification for his actions was beyond gross and predatory. By his own very detailed admission, though he didn't intend to, he revealed his predatory nature and belief that his actions towards women was not only acceptable but justified.

then you also think that all those head lines saying that the shower incident was a "sexual assaul" were justified?

there shouldn't be a distinction between that incident (in the context that it happened), and something that resembles an actual assault? the fact that she was so "outraged" after the "assaut" that they continued to be friends and, even more, had a sexual relatioship shortly after shouldn't matter either?

I thought that the articles that took their time to come out, and used the words "sexual misconduct" in the tittle (instead of "assault"), did a much better job of decribing the situation with the information that we had.

 

[OminousShadow]

Damn sad to see GAF in this state. Reading through this thread is just depressing, so much fighting

 

[Nekketsu Kõha]

Honestly, I never felt that the moderation here was too strict. On the contrary, I appreciate the banning of clearly racist or sexist users. In this day and age, it's more important than ever to take a stand against the forces that threaten humanity.

You sound paranoid and you couldn't be more wrong about the moderation that happened.

 

[ZeoVGM]

You sound paranoid and you couldn't be more wrong about the moderation that happened.

... How did he sound paranoid?

 

[Buffalo]

A million threads complaining about how all of women in Dead or Alive Extreme Volleyball have big exposed breasts. A million other ones about how poor whites, who voted for Hillary Clinton overall by large margins, deserve to have their healthcare taken away because they didn't like her enough and dared pose skepticism to her and her Wallstreet and war record.

we'll be lucky if this site actually reverts from being a toxic politically-driven hivemind into being a place for video game news and discussion again.

 

[shoelacer]

I want an invite to GAF discord as well

same if anyone could be bothered

 

[Trouble]

So unironically tossing SJW around as a pejorative is going to be normal thing around here now?

 

[Pila]

Glad to see the board online again.

 

[Link]

The long time virtue signalling sjws falling on their own sword. Amusing to watch.

I'm sorry I've read numerous accounts of the story from the accuser and it reads simply like a scorned ex from every angle

She'd drunk to the point of being sick, her words, he'd matched her drink for drink, there's a good chance neither of them remember properly wtf happened.

She can't have been that traumatised as they went on to have a full blown relationship. She's sounds more pissed at how the relationship ended rather than the clearly clumsy drunken attempt to initiate it.

Still it's funny to see Gaf brought down by faux outraged snowflake SJWs acting on extremely limited evidence of a situation, seeing as that has been what's happening for years.

Oh, and regards the Spanish night club ass grab, having been to a few bouncing, gyrating, grinding night clubs in Spain in my youth it's easy to see how that happened as well. Very easy to get carried away in those places.

Maybe I'll get banned maybe I won't

Shit like this is exactly the crap I enjoyed avoiding on this forum.

 

[Porcile]

I’m not telling you, expert 2.0.

Spoiler

I stopped going to JapanGAF a bit ago, so I have no idea. I just talk to a few members I met in Japan through line. The communities I followed are on discord, though. The future is unclear right now for most members, I think.

GAF died before senpai's resurrection.

 

[Swiggins]

Only issue is that 4chan is a very low bar for standards. If GAF goes anywhere near that, even I would jump ship. I mean, there aren't a lot of liberal and progressive leaning websites that also deals with games. I use several other forums and all of them have a conservative slant to it, where honest discussion is impossible due to people being intellectually dishonest throughout conversation (even trolling hard) as it has no consequence from a modding standpoint.

Oh I agree, and one of the reasons I loved GAF was that it was a given that people more or less agreed that women and lgbtq people deserved respect and dignity. It's something I haven't seen on any other gaming forum.

That said...GAF DID have a problem when it came to actual discourse. The accusations that this place has been an "echochamber" are not totally unfounded. The witch-hunting that went on in certain threads was appalling.

We need to do better. I have enough faith in my progressive political views that I can defend them from time to time.

So unironically tossing SJW around as a pejorative is going to be normal thing around here now?

I have no doubt it's going to be like this for at least a little while, we're going to be raided and we're going to be ridiculed, the storm isn't over yet.

 

[ZeoVGM]

A million threads complaining about how all of women in Dead or Alive Extreme Volleyball have big exposed breasts. A million other ones about how poor whites, who voted for Hillary Clinton overall by large margins, deserve to have their healthcare taken away because they didn't like her enough and dared pose skepticism to her and her Wallstreet and war record.

A "million" threads for those topics, eh?

 

[Macam]

I have to say, having been on here for 13 years, being utterly oblivious to what we happened this weekend, and reading through the changes, I have no idea why I would even want to be on here anymore.

Just gaming, with a neutered and worthless revamped Off Topic forum, incognito mods, *and* these allegations? Yeah, just close shop and call it quits, guys. We’re done here.

 

[Wamb0wneD]

It's funny when people say they got shit on in the OT for no reason. Did you really? Like, deep down did you think they were just being crazy and had zero reason to? Like, I was shit on but I realize what I said was offensive. I deserved it. I hated it for a bit but I moved on. I decided to just read those threads instead of trying to shitpost in them. After a while you realize a pattern of the same arguments and same shitposts. Arguments and shitposts that have been 100% debunked.

Oh I'm sure I said something wrong in the eyes of the people who piled on me, but I didn't say anything outrageous. When I as an example don't like it when white people are spoken of as an entity just like I don't like when that happens for black people I get shit on for going #NotAllWhitePeople when I just wanted to point out that that rethoric never helps, and never will, no matter what group it is used on. I remember someone else getting banned because he argued that the person he was shitting on (someone else than me) was "WHITE FFS", like that's a justifiable reason or somehow invalidates any argument that person had. I've seen some crazy ass shit on OT. Maybe you didn't because it never was directed at you.

People who were dogged on in the OP knew they were wrong because they would tell you were wrong. They wouldn't even get angry. They'd just say, "read a bit more on the subject" or actually tell you the truth. But y'all didn't care.

This is straight up BS. And this "y'all didn't care" is too. Who is that y'all. Why am I part of it? Because I disagree with you on the matter? Do you not see how that's not helping any discusssion? This is the exact thing I'm talking about. Stop thinking in groups. I'm not part of that perceived something just because I disagree with you on the topic of how the general discourse of OT GAF was.

You got bit and decided to hide somewhere and be quiet. You waited. You were angry not because you bit by them, but due to being wrong and your ego and pride could not handle it. Y'all wanted to be hot shits and drop in with truthbombs and leave but your pride couldn't handle a response articulating why you were wrong so you kept going. Now you're at a point where those people are moving on. They're off making their own community without you. Guess what? You're still angry at them for proving you wrong and that's why you're saying it was their fault.
Even still this will fall on deaf ears. Y'all only care about getting back at people rather than discussing no matter how many times you claim it's about the discussion. No one's buying it.

"You did this, you did that, but actually I'm just assuming things because I have no fucking clue who you actually are, I'm just making shit up in my mind, putting words in your mouth and make up shit you believe in so i can feel better about myself and act like I'm up for discussion at the same time." You don't even realize how fucking toxic your rethoric and behaviour is.

That fact that you think the story about a secretary who worked for Elon Musk lost their job is important or newsworthy says it all. Sadly however you fail at grasping that.

That's an interesting (and laughably condescending) take for sure. May I remind you that I didn't even bring the whole thing up? Like, I responded to you on the matter, not the other way round. Nice try though.

 

[psychowave]

we'll be lucky if this site actually reverts from being a toxic politically-driven hivemind into being a place for video game news and discussion again.

This might come as a surprise to you but Off Topic was completely separate from Gaming. You could even visit Off Topic and easily avoid the thread about politics.

Honestly this all reeks of "I didn't like it, so it must disappear!". Go to 4chan or reddit then. You have options. Those of us who liked GAF don't have them.

 

[mr jones]

Finally.

It will be weird not having a pack of minorities go chimp on you for voicing different opinions. But we will adjust.

Wow. I liked this dude, too.

 

[TarNaru33]

I was more laughing about their new forum which is probably gonna 1000x worse as a far left echo chamber than GAF became. I've never been personally banned, but I've seen many posters on here before get banned for just simply sharing the wrong political belief. Many of the mods were bad at their jobs.

A lot of people like that "far left echo chamber" though. There simply isn't many forums that is actually left leaning, even slightly left leaning. People call this thread a left echo chamber which isn't accurate.

I do agree, there were plenty of bans even I thought were not right, but majority of bans I seen and read through to figure out the context were well deserved in my view.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

So unironically tossing SJW around as a pejorative is going to be normal thing around here now?

That's the kind of community GAF has decided to go with.

 

[Shadio]

If you invite condemnation then you will get it. If you know not supporting something will make people dislike you then don't bring it up? All posts are voluntary.

I don't mind being disliked, especially if I'm saying something I think is right. It's just that I would be alone in a sea of people who disagree with me, some of which would have the ability to shut me out entirely. And that's not necessarily because it's an unpopular opinion, it's just that the people who had the opinion before me had already been weeded out.

Just as an example of what I'd consider to be right is how many people have been posting gifs of Boogie2988, particularly the recent Hat in Time threads. This almost always steers the discussion offtopic into pure hatred and name-calling directed at him. Now I think that sort of thing is toxic and unnecessary no matter who it's aimed at and there shouldn't be any place for it here, but if there's anybody deserving of it, I'm personally of the opinion that he isn't.

I would never say anything to condemn sort of behaviour that because I feared being banned for it. Maybe for helping steer the conversation further off course, but primarily because by defending him people would see me as defending a gamergater or nazi sympathiser as people have called him. Now I don't reduce people to simple labels or judge them entirely on their thoughts on a single issue, but that's another discussion.

I just don't really want to see hatred on a board that's meant to be based around my hobby, and those political boards were rife with it, yet I couldn't say anything to try and stop it out of fear of repurcussions. Whether that fear was justified or not is the result of the reputation NeoGAF earned with its moderation tactics, and something I think is worth bringing up now.

 

[KonradLaw]

So unironically tossing SJW around as a pejorative is going to be normal thing around here now?

Well, that's the entire point of SWJ term, isn't it? At least it used to be initially, used as a way to separate normal progressive people from crazy zealots. The progressives tried to later on simply take the overwship of that term, but it never worked fully.

 

[pvpness]

Same. I was never even warned. All the hateful members I didn’t like ended up getting banned. Worked for me.

Yeah, that's one of my favorite parts about GAF too. As soon as someone would start with some dishonest bullshit defending racism/sexism/etc that everyone has heard/debunked a million times before, they'd be banned in seconds. Hope that doesn't change.

Can't believe I missed 72 of the most interesting hours in GAF history. :/ Never really posted in off-topic but spent lots of time reading it. It will be missed.

 

[enzo_gt]

EviLore/Mods saying there will be no more social/political discussion allowed on GAF while closing threads that are critical of NeoGAF's ongoing reputation (I'm not just talking about shitposts and account suicides either, of which there are a lot ATM) but keeping threads like the GAF will always support minorities/lgbt thread open are kind of emblematic that y'all didn't learn a damn thing about the criticisms about transparency, authoritarian and preferential modding, elastic policies, censorship against challenging opinions, and self-protective reflexes that have come to characterize modding on GAF in recent years.

And the firsts two posts in this thread reflect that. They fail to adequately acknowledge these characterizations that were anything but fringe opinions, fail to address them in favour of creating even less accountability for mods, and have the gall to even be condescending to the userbase and asking them to behave and respect the mod team after everything that has happened and users have endured over the past few years. Who would've thunk that a less accountable authority with unilateral power wouldn't inspire much confidence in the community it governs?

In the most dire of circumstances this forum has ever faced, you thought it was a good idea to do that, and expect people to believe that the welfare of the community is your top concern when you double down on, without question, some of the most frequent critiques people had of this site and EviLore? How do you expect anyone to respect an establishment that pre- and post-crisis stubbornly puts itself before the community it serves? WIth an owner that prides himself on it's autocracy?

These have been issues for years. You have have worked to silence these issues for years. You created an anonymous authority for mods to more easily be passive aggressive, subjective, and dismissive in their modding. A sexual misconduct allegation shatters the site and fragments users who, now no longer under threat of expressions of their concerns being cause for oppression towards them, cite these same issues over and over again during the recess. The site re-materializes and you fail to acknowledge these issues, because, oh man, it must just have been this last year that got us all fucked up.

I'm not upset EviLore took a couple days to make a statement, I just didn't expect that after all these losses the site has suffered for him (and the remaining/current mod team) to be so defensive, unsympathetic, placate responsibility, be condescending to the community, and make such a weak excuse for not releasing that statement to the community when there are clear obvious channels like Twitter to do so for times exactly like these.

And the worst part? Now that we can see this stubbornness/arrogance is still alive and well, all of this will probably continue to fall on deaf ears, and you have yet to give anyone confidence it won't. Hell, a post like this might have even gotten you a light ban (at the very least a certain lock) a week ago. Shit, it still might, even though I'm well within the ToS. I don't know what it will take if such a cataclysmic event for this site doesn't make you see what's been clear to and echoing throughout the entire community for years or reflect upon the decisions with the site you've made over the years. It's at that point where people begin to question whether you are fit to be a leader or decision maker, or you're incredibly out of touch with both what the community was and is relative to where you've been trying to steer it.

Without attacking or being inflammatory (because that's against the ToS, of course), what's it going to take to engender that much needed introspection, EviLore and co.? I'm not sure there will be anyone or anything left by the time what people are spelling out loud gets put on the page. Actually, that might be the saddest part. The damage to the communities is done. Maybe they were splintered by the events of the weekend, maybe they were sent to Community to die years ago, or maybe they were nuked in their entirety by the actions of a minority of users.

I've been on GAF for maybe 8 years and reading much longer, and have, like many others, built relationships and found a home in several communities; some of which you genuinely cannot find comparable others elsewhere online (e.g. FGC-GAF). Not that it matters, because it really doesn't, but I've got one of the higher post counts of any members I've seen, too. It's hard to go from that kind of investment in and daily ritual of GAF to having to suddenly disassociate from it, but honestly? I still had a bit of hope GAF would emerge from the ashes, confront those plain-as-day-issues at last, and pass the clearly tainted brand away from what has tainted it and some may argue slowly tainting it over the years as well. The OP pretty much dashed any last chances of that, and any confidence I once had in this site is now gone. Dunno how it's possible GAF will ever get me back but if it can, it definitely won't be like this, and probably not with EviLore at the helm.

 

[Prototype Viktor]

Ain't that the truth.

I don't want to get too much into my own sob story here but as a woman who was sexually assaulted by a man as a child, who spoke up about it only to see that man walk away scot-free with zero repercussions, this is just... I can't even describe it. It serves as a reminder of my place in the world, I guess. I liked GAF because it was a place that more or less respected women and minorities, a place where I could discuss video games without being reminded that I don't belong, a place where people could discuss issues of representation in video games without the discussion being drowned by cries of "SJW!!!". Now it's just another corner of the Internet full of neckbeards circlejerking about SJWs and virtue signaling. I'm just tired.

And lots and lots of code switching